The Congress on Sunday criticised the government for ignoring what it called the “most fundamental challenge” facing the Indian economy: the decline in real household incomes. Comparing the government’s stance to that of the “proverbial ostrich,” Congress accused it of being blind to the economic hardships faced by the country’s working class. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh pointed to a new report by a prominent brokerage firm, which he said confirms the persistent decline in real wages — a trend the government has consistently denied.
“A combination of slow wage growth and back-breaking inflation has caused an unprecedented decline in real wages (wages adjusted for price rise) and therefore incomes,” Ramesh said in a statement. He cited various surveys and data sets, including the Annual Survey of Unregistered Enterprises (ASUSE), the Reserve Bank of India’s KLEMS data, and the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES), which indicate growing financial distress among working-class Indians. Ramesh noted that multiple sources, including government statistics, show that workers can purchase less today than they could a decade ago.
According to the Labour Bureau’s Wage Rate Index, real wages for labourers have stagnated between 2014 and 2023 and even declined between 2019 and 2024. Ramesh contrasted this with data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s “Agricultural Statistics at a Glance,” which shows that under former Prime Minister Manmoha.